Page 49 - THE TIME MACHINE

The Time Machine

(Afterwards I found I had got only a half-truth—or only a
glimpse of one facet of the truth.)
‘It seemed to me that I had happened upon humanity
upon the wane. The ruddy sunset set me thinking of the

sunset of mankind. For the first time I began to realize an
odd consequence of the social effort in which we are at
present engaged. And yet, come to think, it is a logical
consequence enough. Strength is the outcome of need;
security sets a premium on feebleness. The work of
ameliorating the conditions of life—the true civilizing
process that makes life more and more secure—had gone
steadily on to a climax. One triumph of a united humanity
over Nature had followed another. Things that are now
mere dreams had become projects deliberately put in hand
and carried forward. And the harvest was what I saw!
‘After all, the sanitation and the agriculture of to-day
are still in the rudimentary stage. The science of our time
has attacked but a little department of the field of human
disease, but even so, it spreads its operations very steadily
and persistently. Our agriculture and horticulture destroy a
weed just here and there and cultivate perhaps a score or
so of wholesome plants, leaving the greater number to
fight out a balance as they can. We improve our favourite
plants and animals —and how few they are—gradually by

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